


Mermay 2020

by Shae_la_Hyene



Category: Original Work
Genre: 600 words minimum a day, Not really from the movies, but Davy Jones' arc was inspired by it, but some were just for fun, my mermay works, or to fill the prompts of the three people who read me at the time, some of them will be used in my book series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:28:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 20,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24541585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shae_la_Hyene/pseuds/Shae_la_Hyene
Summary: Instead of drawing for mermay, I wrote, 600 words min each day.Two stories are several days' worth.Davy Jones' arc will be longer in my books.The Circus arc had to be finished quickly to fit the timeline, so it isn't the end that could be expected, but I still like it.And others, including penguins, picnics, and orcas.Some cute, some more gore-y. Some really gore.Enjoy !





	1. Davy Jones

He was drifting, the sea as still as it was already the day before.  
He had stopped paddling a long time ago, knowing there was very little point. Instead, he let himself be carried by the soft currents. He didn’t want his last days to be filled with physical exertion and panic. There was little he could do anyway. Every sailor knew that.  
Everyone of the sailors who put him in that boat knew that. And yet they still did it.  
He tried not to feel angry at them.  
He didn’t want his last days to be filled with anger either.  
He heard a movement in the water next to him, and turned to see.  
It was not the shark he feared it would be.  
It was a woman.  
Slowly, her head emerged from the still water, getting closer to his own face, until he would only have to lean in to kiss her. She was beautiful, he wanted to kiss her.  
“Hi,” he said softly.  
She tilted her head and reached out until her elbows were resting on the edge of his boat.  
“Hi,” she said in a clear voice. “Are you lost ?”  
He sighed. He didn’t wanted to have to tell her that story, it was not a nice one to hear.  
“I suppose you could say so, yes,” he said instead. “Are you a monster ?”  
She leaned back, looking insulted.  
“I’m a mermaid,” she said simply. “Are you a monster ?”  
He frowned. “I’m a human.”  
“Then yes,” came the light flash answer.  
He shrugged, remember what his own crew just did to him.  
“I suppose you could say so…” he said again, sadly.  
She tilted her head again in that adorable way, and smiled a little. Apparently the answer was the right one, because she came close again, her head laid upon her hands on the edge.  
“Why are you here, all alone ? Were you looking for freedom ?”  
He laughed at that and shook his head.  
“You’re not going to live very long, this way,” she continued. “Why are you doing this ? Wouldn’t it be more clever to be in a bigger boat with more people ? Or on the firm land ?”  
He smiled. It was most definitely true.  
“It’s not really my choice,” he said finally, trying to rein the feelings in. “I had a boat and a crew, but then we were stuck in a fog for days. We were all afraid we could never leave it, never go back to the land. And as my mother was a witch, they decided that it was my fault. That I was bringing bad luck to the ship, that if they wanted the curse gone, they had to expel the one it was on.”  
“Oh,” she said simply. “That is not very nice. Were you really cursed ?”  
He shook his head.  
“No, I don’t think so. But sailors are superstitious, and I had to leave.”  
He sighed again, and looked around him. The fog had started to disappear soon after he left the ship, but there were still no land in sight. No one, and he couldn’t find his old ship either. No compass, no sail, no provision. He wouldn’t go anywhere.  
“They just threw me away, left to the mercy of the next storm, or of sharks if they find me…”  
At that she moved away from the boat, laughing. Her new position allowed the man to see her tail, lazily emerging to the surface.  
“Oh no, sweetheart, that’s not the truth.”  
He frowned, he knew he didn’t lie. He was about to ask when she continued.  
“They left you at my mercy.”  
“Oh,” he said sadly. “I see. I suppose I shall fear you then.”  
She tilted her head again in that way of hers.  
“You don’t look afraid,” she asked.  
He shrugged.  
“I don’t really fear death,” he confessed. “So all I can hope for is for you to not be cruel and make me suffer unnecessarily.”  
“Everybody fears death,” she said, shaking her head. “You really think you’re different ?”  
He sighed, and looked in the water.  
“I think I feared it for a while. But all my family died, so now I know what it really means to die. And when they started to search someone to blame, yesterday, I knew I was going to die. It’s as simple as that.”  
“Shouldn’t you feel angry at them ? Wanting to survive to get your revenge ?”  
He shook his head slowly.  
“Maybe I’m a little mad, but this is on them, not on me. I did nothing wrong, so I have no regrets.”  
She leaned back, looking thoughtful. Her tail was moving back and forth slowly, and for a while he kept his eyes on the sight of it.  
“Are you going to kill me now ?” he asked quietly after a while.  
“I haven’t decided yet,” came the light response.  
“Oh,” he said, surprised. “Alright.”  
After another silence, he managed to ask.  
“Do you have a name ?”  
She blinked, like she didn’t expect that question and didn’t know how to answer.  
“I had one, I suppose,” she said slowly. “But I don’t remember it. But my… friend, my friend, she once called me Coraline. You can call me that if you want.”  
He laughed.  
“You don’t care about your name ?”  
She smiled and shook her head.  
“Names are a human thing, we don’t need them down here. Talking is not really important, and we are only two, so when we see each other, we don’t need names to say we recognize each other.”  
He laughed, surprised.  
“Only two ?”  
She nodded, smiling. “Yes. Only two.”  
He watched around them, as if trying to assess the size of the world.  
“It’s a big ocean. Don’t you feel alone ?” he asked carefully.  
She shrugged, her shoulders making little waves on the calm surface.  
“Maybe… maybe not. My life is different than yours. Will you miss your life, back on land ? Are a wife and children waiting for you ?”  
He shook his head.  
“No, there is no one. You won’t have to feel guilt, I promise,” he said softly.  
She hummed, pensively.  
“I was human too, a very long time ago,” she said, so softly he almost didn’t hear her. “I don’t regret that life either.”  
He smiled.  
“I could say I’ll miss the ocean, because it always felt I was born for it. But if I die here I won’t miss it,” he said simply.  
She kept silent for a long while after that.  
“You said your mother was a witch, is it true ?” she asked finally.  
He nodded.  
“You probably know some things about the supernatural then. Are you familiar with the sort of deals creatures like me could offer ?”  
He frowned.  
“What could you possibly want to give me ? I’m no one and you are one of the only two of your kind.”  
She frowned, insulted.  
“I am the only one of my kind. And so are you, in a way.”  
He smiled and shook his head disbelievingly.  
“I have nothing to offer you, Coraline. And you ? Are you offering me not to be a monster ?”  
She shook her head.  
“No,” she said simply, and it ringed true.  
“But I could be your monster.”

He was to live, and to go back safely to the shore.  
He was to be given treasures, enough to buy a dozen ships and a thousand men to sail them.  
He was to be rich, and powerful.  
He was to always have an advantage over his opponents, his own monster hiding in the shadows, ready to rip their throats out and wreck their ships in half.  
He was to be respected, and feared.  
The most powerful pirate to ever exist. A legend. Admired by all.  
He was to have his revenge on the crew that sent him to his death.  
He was to have everything he wanted.  
And then, he was to die.  
She had made it very clear, and he would have accepted anything she could have asked. He would have have followed her in the abysses, to his death, in the blink of an eye, even before she had proposed the pact.  
He would have been a fool to refuse. Ten more years to live, everything he ever dreamed of having, the life he always wanted, all for the small price of the life he would have lost if not for that same pact. He didn’t know why she offered, and he didn’t ask.  
Creatures like Coraline weren’t thinking the same way humans did. He probably couldn’t understand her reasons. He could only be grateful.  
And grateful he was. He had been when he saw the gleaming gold she brought him. Had been when his feet felt the solid land once again. When he had eaten again, an imminent death no longer looming over him.  
It had felt like a good deal, the first months, one he should be grateful for.  
He had everything he ever wanted.  
Except one.  
Because he wouldn’t see her again, not until the day of his death. She had been adamant on that, and he didn’t even find in himself to argue.  
He knew she was always near, lurking in the shadows, ready to answer his call when there was someone, something to destroy in his way.  
But she was never there. For him to talk to her, see her smile, be hers as he wished for her to be his. She would never be his. He was but a mere distraction for her. A toy, a contract to fulfill.  
Even as he would never know what she was taking from it. He knew what it was taking from him. His love, his future, his will to be part of the livings there, when he only wanted to be with her.  
In the end, he knew intimately that the pact had not been worth it. He wished he had been less foolish, wished he had refused, and let her take him away right away. Not giving him ten long years of agony and longing, his heart torn from his chest and buried at the bottom of the deepest abyss.  
When all he has ever wanted, was her.  
He wondered if it had been her plan, if she knew how much it was torturing him. If she did it on purpose, teaching him a lesson, not to make deals with magical creatures.  
Monsters don’t think like humans did. Maybe she didn’t mean to make him suffer. Only thought of giving him ten years more of life, and the chance to die before becoming old. Maybe she had loved him, wanted him to be happy before being with her, when she knew no future waited for him at her side in the breathless ocean.  
Maybe she had loved him, and yet they couldn’t be together, and she wouldn’t show herself to him again. Not for ten more years.  
She had taken more than his life, that day.

I found Coraline lazing around on the sand, and nudged her with my hand.  
“Come, we have some work to do,” I said. She opened her eyes and nodded, following me.  
As time passed and humans became more and more greedy, the problems they cause to the oceans became too much to be resolved by Mother Nature alone.  
We were heading not far from the seventh continent, answering the call of turtles stuck in the nests at the bottom of the sea.  
Wordlessly, we split and start to unknot gently the trapped animals, making a pile with the nest pieces. I had very good ideas on where to dump them, but that could wait.  
“So,” I asked in a conversation tone. “What’s with the guy ?”  
She didn’t raise her eyes from her task, clearly avoiding me. “What guy ?” she said innocently.  
“You know what guy. Like. If you want to kill him, just do it, don’t play with your food.”  
She blushed, her teeth clenching. “Shut up,” she said eventually.  
I grinned but obeyed, focusing again on removing the plastic without hurting the animals trapped in it. I freed a young one, and gave it a cursory push to help it go back in movement.  
“Why did you do it ?” Co asked suddenly. “You never told me.”  
I looked at her in confusion. “Did what ?”  
“Transform,” she said, still not looking up.  
Oh. I took a deep breath and forced my body to relax.  
“You know the expression ‘choose your battles’ ?” I started, calmly. She nodded.  
“Well I refused to do it. I hated the idea that I had to choose what I could do with my abilities, and the time I had left. I loved so many things, and I was to sacrifice some for the sake of a few ? I didn’t wanted to live a life where I saw possibilities die one after the other, where I had to choose my battles.” I breathed out, slowly. Then in. Then out.  
“And… is it how you wanted it to be ? Do you regret it ?” she asked after a moment.  
I smiled.  
“Maybe I should regret it, but I really don’t. I’m happy with my life. I’m glad of the chance I have to not have to choose. To be able to be there, and take my time taking out of nest those… poor unfortunate souls, without any hurry, knowing I have the abilities and time to do everything else too.” She hummed, deep in her own thoughts.  
“So ?” I asked again. “I gave you my answer, what is yours ?”  
She blushed again.  
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said quietly. “I don’t know if I’ll end up regretting it. It just… felt right. It was a spur of the moment decision. I haven’t regretted it yet. I like seeing him thriving from afar, be alive and glorious and all. I know that if I wanted him with me, it would only be brief. There is no future where we could be together.”  
I hummed. “Frankly I’m just surprised, I always thought you were a lesbian.”  
She shouted at me, outraged, and threw a piece of net at me.  
“This is none of your business, and let’s face it, you have a terrible gay radar !”  
I laughed, evading the plastic bits and shielding myself with a turtle. She wouldn’t dare hit it.  
“I don’t know if I like him like that. I just… I liked talking with him. It was nice. And, well… even if I just saved him that day, he would die in like fifteen ? Twenty years ? Ten is good. He’ll die in all of his glory, with a badass mysterious story, without having the time to get old.”  
I smiled.  
“He’s in love with you, you know ?”  
She looked at me angrily.  
“You spied on him !” she accused me. “You can’t just let me do my things alone, can you ? What’s next ? One of your stupid nicknames ?”  
I laughed. “Oh he already has one. It’s Davy Jones.”  
She rolled her eyes.  
“What ? You know I give everyone a nickname ! I’m shit at remembering names !”  
I grinned. “Plus admit it’s a badass name…”


	2. Circus Mermaid

Where she was from, there was no money, no gain, no profit, nothing was made to be exploited.  
And where she was from, no being was exchanged for it.  
But she was far from home. If she wasn’t, nothing of what was happening would even have been allowed.  
The man who bought her was also the owner of a circus. And of others ‘monsters’ like her. But most of them were just human, disguised as monsters. Apparently he wanted a real mermaid, realism attracted more people, more money.  
So he had paid a lot of money for her, that is what he had said, and had gotten it back tenfolds. Because of the realism he said.   
She understood quickly that she would never leave the circus. She would never be released in her ocean, and she couldn’t escape by herself.   
She wouldn’t even leave that minuscule glass prison he had put her in. Only for… for when he took even more money from his possession. And only to go back inside right after.  
She missed swimming in wide spaces. Her muscles were atrophied from unuse, her body sick from the lack of fresh water and sun and the nutrients the sea provided. In that glass box, filled with water that was barely even changed, she was deteriorating and slowly dying. That was probably for the best. Such life was not a life, and it would be best for it to end quickly.   
She missed her family, and when she thought of them she imagined her sisters near the shore, knowing they couldn’t go further and find her and rescue her. That she was alone in that dry land, that they couldn’t help, and that they probably felt guilty about it.  
She didn’t wanted them to feel guilty, it was not their fault. As much as she had wished to be rescued, she knew they couldn’t do it.   
She missed her friends, her playing companions who raced with her in the fast currents.   
The other ‘monsters’ never talked to her, and looked at her warily. They were afraid and jealous, and never even tried to know her.  
But she was happy that her friends were still in those clear waters, and they could still live and play, even as she couldn’t anymore.   
She had wished she could go back for a long time, dreaming of the day she’d be reunited with the waves, preparing herself to be ready to take that occasion when it would present itself.  
Her owner came back, after the circus was closed to the public. She hated those days. They were becoming increasingly frequent and she didn’t have time to heal properly in between.   
He had that dirty smile on his face, that face she hated with all the passion left in herself.   
In no time, she was spread on a table, maintained on it firmly by the arms of the two strongest men in the circus. She had tried to fight, the first times. She had never won. She still did, a little, to appease her own heart and to make sure they knew she wasn’t consenting.  
Her owner laid a hand on her hips, and she shivered from the disgusting touch. Then he took some clamps, and slowly pulled on a scale until it came out loose, the flesh bloody and exposed underneath. She squirmed and tried to escape the hold, like every time, but failed, like every time. She kept her voice in, her teeth clenched. She didn’t want them to know they managed to get to her.  
The owner pulled out another scale, and another. He was becoming more greedy, he always took more each time, and she knew he was selling them a high price.   
His hand crawled higher on her chest, and his other hand pulled out an amalgam of scales and flesh.  
She screamed.

“Do you want to go out of here,” the woman asked softly.  
The mermaid sighed.  
“I refuse to sell myself to an higher bidder, or to be in debt with someone. So no, I don’t want what you call help,” she said, if a little harshly.  
“I don’t want to buy you,” the other said, shaking her head. “I just think you shouldn’t be there, and would want to see you out.”  
The mermaid raised an eyebrow.  
“Then just get me out of here,” she said, daring. “But oh, no. You won’t. Because there’s a catch isn’t there ? There’s always one.”  
The woman smiled slightly.  
“You are right, of course,” she said. “There is a catch. I’ll give you freedom, and even a way to get your revenge and take back what was yours. All I want in exchange, is that you do get your revenge.”  
The mermaid was taken aback from that, and left the silence hang between them, waiting for the fall of some sort of joke.  
When she still didn’t answer, the woman continued.  
“The man, that despicable man, who calls himself your owner, that man had wronged me too. I want you to kill him, and I’d like you to give him a very painful death.”  
The mermaid smiled.  
“Oh. That’s not a very expensive price, you probably know already that if I get to escape, I’ll already do that.”  
The woman nodded.  
“I know that, but maybe what I will gain from it other than that will be that I helped give you justice and your freedom back. That is something I’d like to have done with my life and the powers I were given.”  
The mermaid tighten her lips.  
“Powers. You claim to have powers, enough to get me out of here, and to allow me to seek my revenge. Why don’t you use those powers directly to give that man the death you wish him ?”  
The woman shook her head.  
“If I use my powers for wrong, I’d lose some of them, as well as my status as a benevolent witch. My soul would belong to the Dark Side. Even as despicable as he is, he doesn’t deserve me paying that bid of a price.”  
The mermaid smiled.  
“But using those powers to help me seek your revenge is not wrong ? Second-hand violence is okay ?”  
The witch smiled.   
“It is, actually.”  
The mermaid shrugged.  
“I suppose this is a good offer, for me at least. I’m still expecting a catch. So give me the real terms of your contract.”  
The witch nodded.  
“Breaking that glass to let you out is easy. But what I am really offering is… legs. I don’t want to change you into a human. You never will be one. But I can offer you the capacity to change your tail into legs, as long and as often as you’d like, so you would have the power to pursue your enemies on land as well as in sea. I do have that power.”  
The mermaid raised her eyebrows.   
“That is a very generous offer. You say I can go back to my tail as I wish too ? And all of that just to kill that man ?”  
The witch nodded.  
“If you make it painful.”  
With a wicked smile, the mermaid whispered.  
“I really want to know what he did to you…”  
The witch shook her head.   
“That is not part of our deal.”  
The mermaid nodded in acknowledgment, and raised herself higher to lean her hand for the witch to take it.  
“Then you have a deal,” she said seriously.

It was there, she knew it. Could feel it, trembling against her skin.  
The first of many, and she’d take all of them back, even if she had to do it one by one, even if it had to take centuries. If anything else, she had time.  
It was there, calling for her, on that ship. Against human skin, where it didn’t belong.   
It belonged on her skin, and on her skin only.   
It was her skin, after all.  
Her sharp nails biting in the wood, she climbed along the hull quickly. The sailors on the deck didn’t expect her, and she landed in the middle or surprised and scared shouts.  
Below her waist, her tail has morphed smoothly into a pair of legs.  
The witch had held her promise, she could transform any time she wanted. For revenge, she had added, as if she would have used it for any other way.   
She was a simple creature. She didn’t want much for herself. But she had been wronged, and now she was claiming her revenge. That was what the laws of nature allowed her.   
That was what she was seeking on that ship.   
Along with her scale.  
A man that looked more important came from the upper deck, sword out and fear in his eyes. Yet he had the courage to come and face her, to protect his ship and his men. Fool as he was.   
She was invincible.  
Knocking his blade away dismissively, she reached at the thin chain hanging from his neck.   
There it was, encased in an overly ornated piece of metal.   
One of her lost scales. One of those that vile man took away from her at the circus.  
Just being in contact with it again made her feel a little more whole, a little more at peace. She pulled and the chain snapped as it broke around the man’s neck, and she pressed the scale in its cage of metal against her chest.  
“This is what I came for,” she said, her voice deeper than a human one. “You can tell them to step back or I won’t hesitate to kill them all.”  
The man in front of her looked surprised, but motioned for his men to back off, leaving a wide space around them both.   
“Why… why do you want it ?” he asked hesitantly.  
Apparently he had yet to recognize her immediate claim over her possession.  
“You stole it !” she growled angrily. “And before you tell me you paid for it, just admit you stole it. This was never his, and it was never yours. It had been ripped from its owner, and doesn’t belong to filthy humans like you !”  
He closed his eyes, probably sensing that he was taking his last breaths.  
“I am sorry, ma’am,” he said slowly. “I shouldn’t have bought it, shouldn’t have believe it would bring good luck, and I should have punished that man for robbing a creature like you.”  
She inclined her head, surprised. He did seem more intelligent than the normal.  
“It only brings luck when it is given willingly, which this one is not. Every mermaid know that. Every human should, too.”  
He didn’t answer, but winced slightly and inclined his head in apology.  
She took a step back, watching him from head to toe.  
“If you want good luck so badly, you need to earn it. If you want one of my scales, prove me you deserve it, and do something for me.”  
He opened his eyes, confusion and hope mixing in his expression.  
“Thirty four of my scales are still missing. I know where they are but getting to all of them takes time. I would also kill a lot of your people for it. Take them back, buy them, kill for them, steal them, I do not care, but bring them back to me.”  
He straightened his shoulders, and nodded eagerly.  
She went back on the edge of the deck, and prepared herself to dive back home.  
“You have a month,” she said, and jumped.

“It has been a month,” she said sternly, surprising the man from his back. “Where are my scales ?”  
He turned on himself to face her, fear clear on his face. He was shaking, too. Pathetic.  
Fumbling, he reached into his breast pocket to pull out his loot.   
“This one is not mine,” she said, taking on of the three scales between her fingers. “But this one too was taken by force. I suspect the one you got it from got killed for his luck, is it true ?”  
Stuttering, he only nodded, his eyes wide. She took the scales from his hand, clutching them next to her skin.  
“I will return it to her, don’t bother,” she said simply. “Now where are the others ?”  
He stuttered again.  
“I’m sorry… this… this is all I’ve got… I’ve already spent all of my money for the first two, I had to kill the man for the third and I couldn’t find any more and I’m sorry… with more time I’d find more… I think…”  
She didn’t let him finish, only looked down on him angrily, smelling the fear dripping off his body. He was a scum, not worthy of her time.   
She took his hand between her hands, and twisted it quickly, revealing in the sharp snap of his neck. Then, before his body dropped, she pulled at the chain around his neck, breaking it easily.  
She looked at the metal jewel again.   
She longed for that scale, her heart pulling at it, wishing to be reunited.   
But it could wait. She had to find the others first. This one, she’d find it again easily.  
She walked away from the corpse, gauging the reactions of the crew around her.  
A few looked at him with a wicked smile, happy that he was dead as they were free from his cruelty. Most of them were looking at her in fear.  
Only one seemed to have been barely affected by it. She read it in his eyes. His captain failed, so he paid for it. He wasn’t worthy of crying over.  
She liked him. Enough.  
“You,” she growled, seizing him by his collar, “Find the others. You have two weeks.”  
She let go of the fabric, passing the chain around his neck instead.   
“And don’t think giving it away would free you of it. I’d find you.”  
He nodded, his expression closed and serious. She nodded, sealing the deal.  
“If you have more than five, I won’t kill you. Not yet,” she finished, and dived back under the surface.   
It was easy to find her. The scale calling for her as she was calling for it. Wishing to be reunited across space and time. And the call was so much more powerful in the water.   
She was singing. A slow, melancholic complaint filling the water all around her. How long had she been there, crying for what she had lost ? How long since she had lost the fight, and with it the hope of ever being whole again ?  
Her chanting stopped when she felt her scale, and its bearer, coming closer.  
Looking around you, she spotted her distant sister, and knew what she was bringing back to her.  
She raised and slowly swam to meet them.  
Wordlessly, they looked at each other for a moment. More than just their nature, they now shared the knowledge of how it felt. The pain, the fear, the sadness. The feeling of being unwhole, and the knowledge you may never be complete again.  
The one bearing the scale held it on her palm, extending it toward its owner.   
The other hesitated, as if she feared to lose again what was brought back to her. But she still took it, and closed her eyes as the reunification echoed in her body. She pressed her closed fist against her chest, and smiled. She would have cried if it was possible.   
Opening her eyes, she nodded once, solemn.  
‘Thank you’ her eyes said.   
The other nodded in answer, and left without a word.

On the day she was to come, two weeks later, he waited for her, sitting on a beach and looking at the water. He looked very peaceful, maybe too much for someone who may die today.  
“No ship ? No crew ?” she asked, curious, as she walked slowly toward him.  
The corner of his lips raised in a crooked smile.  
“Hard to find someone to come with you when it’s to risk being killed by an angry mermaid,” he said.  
She tilted her head. “That is not the real reason.”  
His grin widen.   
“No, it’s not,” he admitted. “Maybe… maybe I’m just selfish and don’t want you to choose anyone else.”  
She sat next to him, watching the ocean too. Soon, she’ll be able to come back to it, whole again and avenged.   
“If you brought what I asked for, then you don’t need to fear death from me,” she said softly.  
He nodded, and reached in his pocket, for a little jeweled box, and give it to her.  
“Ten ?” she asked upon seeing his booty. “The requirement was only for five.”  
He shook his head. “Didn’t want to take any risk,” he explained. “I found ten, I give you ten. I didn’t want to risk your fury if I hid what I found, or if they weren’t all yours.”  
She nodded, closing the box with a snap.   
“You are right, only two of them are mine. One of them was given freely, but the human it was given to is dead, so she’ll be happy to get it back too.”  
He looked at her, his expression almost tender.  
“And, maybe,” he whispered, “I didn’t like the idea of you longing for parts of you that were stolen.”  
She looked forward again, evading his gaze.  
“Our scales are… vulnerable. Fragile,” she said with a ball in her throat. “They are soft when everywhere else we are strong. Tender when we are fierce. To give them away is a sign of trust. This is something you have to deserve, that you have to win. For a mermaid to give up a part of herself, and such an intimate and vulnerable part of herself, it is required for the human to already have her love, her trust, and her faith. Mermaids are powerful beings, way more than humans. The love you earned from one is the real talisman, not the scale. The scale is only a symbol of it. It is the faith she placed in you, willingly, that protects you and brings you good luck. Not the scale.   
“To take one forcefully is to betray her trust, to corrupt her faith and to rip her of love. Mermaids curse the ones that rip them of their scales, and that bad luck is more powerful than the blessing of love. Humans that steal scales are monsters, full of cruelty and greed. No good will fall upon them.”  
She looked at him again, and saw affection in his eyes.  
“We long for our scales. They call for us, and we call for them. The pain tearing us apart from the distance never fades. If we give a scale, it’s to show the human we are already longing for them, and are ready to do it forever, knowing that with them our vulnerability and love will be safe and guarded. If someone is unworthy of this love, betray the mermaid, and sell away the scale, it brings the mermaid great pain. She may never trust again, as she is already missing a part of her soul. To heal after that, we need to get our scale back. It rarely happens, and many mermaids are longing and melancholic. If betrayed, most of us will turn bitter and cruel.  
“The man who tortured me, caged me like an animal, and stole my scales one by one, I got the chance to torture him back, before killing him. But the scales he stole, were already exchanged for the gold he never had enough of. That is why I asked you to bring them back to me.   
“To heal, I will need my scales, but I will also need someone who trusts me, and that is worthy of my trust. Your predecessor was weak, only obeyed me by fear because he was a coward and was terrified of dying.”  
His teeth were clenched, and he seemed to understand the foreign concept.  
“I’ll do everything I can to be worth of your trust,” he promised.

“How many are yours ?” he asked softly.  
Two other weeks had passed, he found 8 other scales.  
She sighed, feeling incredibly sad all at once. Maybe she shouldn’t have build her highs up, but it was too late for that now.  
“Only one,” she said in a breath. “The others are not. One was given willingly, though…”  
She indicated the one she was talking about and show it to him.  
“See ? It’s shinier. Did you… did you kill the man who had it ?”  
He frowned, and looked at the scale closely, probably trying to match it with the proper memory.  
“I bought that one. With the treasure you gave to me last time. I don’t know if it was the one who it was given to in the first place. I always asked where they got it from, since you told me what that really meant, but they often lied. I think the man I bought it from lied.”  
She hummed.  
“I guess I could ask the owner of that scale, but if you bought it, even if it was the one she gave it to, he betrayed her trust. If he was killed for it, she’d be sad. But being betrayed would have broke her heart.”  
He looked down, apologetic.  
“What will you tell her ?” he asked quietly.  
She shook her head.  
“I won’t tell anything. I never do. I bring back their scale, no answers. If they want to know, they’ll have to figure out by themselves. It is so rare for us to get our scales back, they are already grateful.”  
He didn’t answer, looking apologetic once again, once again for no reason. Then he nudged her with his shoulder.  
“Well,” he said softly, “I’m glad you have one scale back. I’m sorry it wasn’t more.”  
She shook her head. “You couldn’t know.”  
They stayed silent for a while, he respecting her need for it. She was watching the scales, and their pretty little box. She felt like, were she human, she could have cried. She had been longing for her scales for so long, and so little came back even after months of research. The more time passed, the farer her scales were likely to travel, far, so far away from her. How many years, decades, before feeling complete again ?  
“Come with me,” she heard, pulling her out of her dark thoughts.  
“What ?” she asked, surprised.  
“Come with me,” he said again. “Like this, I won’t steal any scales that were rightfully earned. And as you feel their call, we can target your own scales with more accuracy. I know… I suppose. That it’s hard for you to seek for them on your own on land. We live in different worlds, it’s a lot to adapt to. I can help you adapt to it, navigate the human world. Come with me, to find your scales back.”  
She was so surprised she didn’t know what to answer, and stuttered.  
“I… I can’t. I have… I have to get those back to their owner.”  
He laughed.   
“Not right now. You have things to care for, and me too. In a few days, I’ll arrange ways for you to blend more in between humans so you won’t have to fight your way everywhere. Mundane things like clothes would definitely help,” he said, blushing on the last words.  
She smiled.  
“If I didn’t knew you better than that, I’d take that as a cue that I look ugly for an human.”  
He blushed harder.  
“I… I don’t know,” she said eventually. “I’m… not used to people offering for help without asking anything in exchange. It only happened… once, before. And I still struggle to believe she didn’t take something I didn’t notice.”  
He nudged her shoulder again.  
“The weird thing about humans,” he said, “is that they’re both capable of the worst, and of the best. I wish for you to trust me, but I know not to expect it.”

“This is absurd, I look ridiculous,” she said.  
He laughed next to her, watching her go out from behind the curtain in a tangle of loose laces and a mountain of fabric folds.  
“I think you look really beautiful,” he said with a smile.  
She frowned, her eyes throwing daggers at him.  
“But you’re an human. Humans have no taste for what is really beautiful,” she mumbled.  
It made him laugh again.  
Her feet caught in the skirt and she hissed in rage.  
“What it the point of legs if it’s to wear that ! Why don’t I wear pants like you ? They look much more practical.”  
He rolled her eyes.   
“Fine. In the next city, we’ll find you pants. But for now it’ll have to do,” he said, throwing a pair of boots at her feet.  
She eyed them suspiciously.   
“I won’t wear that,” she said in an irrevocable tone.  
“Boots will protect your feet. Prevents them from being hurt from the cold or the elements. You said your legs were a gift, right ? You don’t want to damage that gift. Who know if they would even heal at all ?”  
She frowned again, but knew she had to cave. With struggles, she passed the old boots on, the shape wrong and uncomfortable around her feet. With all of that unnecessary fabric, she felt heavier than ever. She missed the ocean already, where no weight mattered…  
“Is all of that really necessary ?” she whined finally.  
“It is,” he assured with a nod. “Now let’s go, we have an appointment.”

“Constantine, my friend !” said her friend as soon as he entered the pawn shop. “You have something for me ? You know I’m interested in anything you have to offer !”  
The owner gave off a very wide, very fake smile of his own.  
“I have something for you, Sir. I managed to get my hands on three other mermaid scales, certified as real. Five thousand gold pieces each, friendly price for you,” he said with a more secret but as fake as the first smile.   
That was why the human world was hard for her to navigate. People never said what they meant, or meant what they said. You were supposed to guess. She gritted her teeth. It was not her deal, but theirs, she would only complicate it more.  
As the man disappeared behind a door, her friend leaned toward her to whisper.  
“Remember, he is not the one who received it and sold it, or stole them in the first place. Killing him would only make finding other scales more difficult.”  
She pressed her lips together. That was against what she believed in. But she nodded anyway.  
The man came back, presenting them three scales on a piece of fabric.  
Her friend turned toward her for the answers she could provide.  
“None are mine, if that’s what you want to know,” she said bitterly. “But I could have told you that before entering the shop. This one” she indicated one “was given willingly. The other two, stolen.”  
He nodded, and handed the shop owner a little bourse, as payment probably.  
Without much more talking, they took the scales and left, toward the harbor.  
“You think we’d just find someone out there claiming he has a mermaid scale, so easily ?” she asked, dubious.  
He shook his head. “Of course not, but I pay some kids here to gather informations. They go to captains and officers, all wide eyes and curiosity, and the men spill it all to show off.”  
“Oh,” she said. “I suppose it’s a good way. I would never have thought of it.”  
They found two more scales there, thanks to a very dirty and famished kid, and when the holder of a stolen one refused to give it away, she simply killed him. She hadn’t been so successful so fast on her own before. It gave her hope for the first time since her capture.

“What a beautiful day,” he said, extending his arms as if to embrace the world.  
She hummed, not really convinced. The sun was scorching her skin, and she felt dried to the core from the sharp air.   
They were far inland, now. More than she ever went on her own. It was hard in more ways than one. She would refuse to voice it out loud, but she missed her home terribly. She wasn’t meant for here, she wanted to go back in the water. And she was tired of being restrained to dirty bath tubs in dirty inn chambers. That was too human for her.  
Noticing her sour mood, he slid an arm around her waist, and kissed her lips softly.  
“This is going to be a great day, for you and me, I promise. We’re going to do great, and we’re going to be very lucky, because I’ve got you, my lucky charm, right with me, by my side,” he said with a smile.  
His hands were rubbing her back through the rough clothing they bought for her. After a while, she insisted on pants and flowy fabrics she didn’t have to feel all the time, only when they hit her skin. She still hated them. But he… seemed to like them. Like seeing her in them.   
She forced a smile and followed him in the crowded street.  
She didn’t even know where they were going. As always, it was he who knew where to go. It did work, so she rarely questioned it. When they were running out of tracks, they followed the call of her own scale to the next town, and start all over again.   
It had been months. She was exhausted.   
“Oh, we can find more in that shop,” he said enthusiastically, showing yet another pawn shop.  
She shook her head.   
“None of mine. I want to look for one of mine now,” she said quietly.   
He shrugged.   
“Come on, baby, please, it’s not like you can reattach them anyway. What’s one more day ?”  
She stopped dead on her track.  
“That’s one day more of suffering,” she said angrily. “One more day out in that scorching sun and away from my home. One more day of having to rely on you and wearing what you want me to wear. One more day away from my real life.”  
He rolled his eyes, and grabbed her arm to pull her forward.   
“That is not fair. I paid for those clothes, and without me you wouldn’t have found all those scales you found.”  
She pulled her arm back, refusing to take another step.  
“I brought you every gold coin you are using, you didn’t found it, I did. Don’t get cocky.”  
He stood straighter, looking angry.  
“I am my own man, I make my own money ! You really think that it’s your ridiculous chest that got us so far ? It is the money I earned, that fed you everyday.”  
She frowned, confused.  
“And how did you earn that money, tell me ?” she asked.  
He smirked wickedly.  
“Buying and selling rare amulets, of course.”  
She took a step back from the shock.  
“You’ve been selling away the scales ? The scales we both worked hard to find so we could give them back to their original owners ? The reason we went that far inland, to retrieve the parts of themselves, and repair the damage ?”  
He shrugged again.  
“Don’t make it that big of a deal, would you ? They’re not yours. Those mermaids should have held onto it more cautiously, if you ask me. Now they’re mine and they represent a lot of money.”  
He laughed to himself, looking behind his shoulders.  
“And since now I can make the difference between the bad luck ones and the good luck ones, I can take my revenge on the people I don’t like.”  
She couldn’t handle the shock. All those months of suffering, for nothing ?  
“Why ? You don’t… you don’t need money. I can’t believe you sold the scales. How many did you give away like that ? All of them ? Except mine, of course, because I would have noticed, wouldn’t I ? All of that, just for your stupid greed ?”  
He raised his hands as to stop her from advancing on him.  
“Let’s not overreact here, shall we ? It’s really not that big of a deal…”  
She didn’t let him finish that sentence. Taking one big step over him, she had took his head into her hands, and twisted hard until she heard his bones snap.  
His eyes still open and wide in fear, he collapsed on the cobblestones. Nobody even noticed.   
Humans didn’t care about other humans.  
Ripping his jacket open, she seized the little jewelry box, and opened it to inspect its contents.  
Apart from her own, there were only three scales left. Months of efforts, and those hard won scales were now spread even farer.  
And now she was alone. All she could think of was that she wanted to go home, crawl under a rock and cradle her scales to herself.   
She couldn’t stand being in the human world anymore, so she turned her heels away from the despicable man she made the mistake to trust, and started to walk, fast.  
She could feel the call of it, it was the direction of the ocean.   
She would come home.


	3. Shark Fin

That "day" started in an ordinary way as most of the days under the surface often did.  
I had spent a lot of time in the deep waters lately, where no light comes to us. So I'm not sure it was a day, a night, or when it did happen. But it did.  
Closer to the surface, I heard a big splash, and saw the streaks of blood first. Then the body of the shark, its fins cut out blunly. It sent so much despair and pain my way, I could do nothing but rush to it hoping I could help.  
You can never completely erase trauma, I knew that. But I did what I could. I repaired his fins, giving fresh new ones, stopped the blood, stopped the pain, and held it against my body for a while.  
I was glad he accepted my help and comfort. I was part human, and all he knew from humans so far was pain and cruelty. I would have understood if he never gave me a drop of trust.  
But he was alone and scared and I was there, maybe it was enough for him.   
Slowly, he pulled away from me and left, hopefully far away from the boat that captured him.  
His part in the story was over. But mine wasn't.  
I swam over to catch up on the boat, and when I reached it, climbed slowly on its side, to read the humans on it. I crossed my arms on the edge, waiting for one of the sailors to notice me. It didn't take long. Males like them have a radar for pretty female faces, after all this time away from the land.   
I smiled to him, coercing him closer. In a few seconds, he was already fascinated, and approached me with a "hey" and a cheap pick up line. I faked interest, flirting back.  
"Are you the captain ?" I ask after a few minutes.   
He looks sad. "No I'm not, but I can make you good anyway !"  
"I know" I say with another charming smile. "Maybe we'll see that later. But for now could you fetch me the captain ?" I laugh and nod in direction of my tail. "I can't really walk there without legs"  
He nods eagerly and run away to the cabin, bringing a rough looking man. Cruelty and hardness could be read in his eyes, and any kind of regret I could have had died down.  
"Are you the captain" I ask again, and this time he nods.   
I smile wider, gesturing him to come closer in an alluring way. He doubted, but eventually came forward.   
As soon as he was close enough, I snatched his wrists and in a strong pull, ripped his arms from his body. He screamed and bled. His body jerked away from me but I caught him before he could get out of my reach. I pulled him in the water, for him to experience what he and his men did to sharks.   
Feels less good when it's to you, aye captain ?  
Jumping on the boat, using my tail as much as my arms, I did quick work of the rest of the crew. The more cruel ones got the same treatment, the kinder got their neck snapped mercifully. The ones in the middle, I left alone. But I snapped the boat in half. They could swim if they wanted to. It wouldn't lead them very far.  
I jumped back in the water, and went to observe the chaos from afar.  
When they would all be dead, I'll clean after myself. But for now I just enjoyed the sight of men drowning without arms to swim, their blood staining the ocean around them.


	4. Plastic bags angels

I’ve always been afraid of the deep waters. The unknown. The parts no one can see, and which hosts those I never met.  
It’s silly, really. A mermaid afraid of water.   
I wasn’t afraid of heights when I had wings. Why going down now would be more scary ?  
I knew some of them. School, and internet, taught me the existence of them. Ugly, blind. Terrifying. So different from me that often I felt I wouldn’t be able to understand. So much anger and violence could birth from that fear. I feared what monster I could become in deep waters, maybe even more than the ones already there.   
Fears are meant to be broken, right ? Exploded, as we break through our limits to say that fear won’t stop us, that courage is the answer and we’ll end up greater from it.  
So I… jumped. Sliding deeper in the ocean that I ever went.   
And it was terrifying.  
My human eyes went useless quickly, all around me going pitch black and silent. Humans were not meant to be there, a little voice in my head reminded me. Your littles scales are not fooling anyone.  
I had stopped breathing, but it was more than the increased pressure that blocked my lungs. Anything could be lurking, right next to me, and I wouldn’t even know.  
I tried to expand my mind, tried to stay open to my environment. I thought it would be enough to perceive if there was… something else than water. But my fear kept my senses in my body, safe where they couldn’t be bitten off. Then I would be blind, I told myself, and swam deeper.   
An unnatural peace calmed the water around me, and I knew it meant that something was there with me. Maybe something big.   
Panicked, I swam faster, far away from the threat I wasn’t ready to face.   
I swam so fast, so blindly, that I hit something without warning. The hard rock and sediment of the bottom of that fucking ocean. That was it, I was in the middle of that deep fear I was supposed to face. I wanted to scream, but the pressure closed my throat. Folding in within myself, I sent electricity around me, hoping it would keep the monsters at bay.  
I don’t remember how long I stayed there. Probably a long time. I never deal well with my panic attacks. And there was no one to help me here…  
But after what really could have been years, curled up on the cold floor of earth, I finally calmed, and started breathing again. Little by little, I allowed the world around me in again.   
Blinded for so long, I allowed my eyes to open again, knowing everything would still be dark.  
But it wasn’t.   
Maybe they had been attracted to my electricity. Maybe they were playful and wanted to play with the new thing. Maybe I was just in their way.  
But the minuscule jellyfishes surrounding me were very real, and really glowing.   
I rarely met jellyfish. And after too many unfortunate meetings with big venomous dead ones on the dirty beaches of my childhood, I never spent a lot of time loving them.  
Jellyfishes were… stupid. They had no brain, they just existed, moving with the flow, letting things happen to them. So there was not this kind of respect in me then.   
But they were beautiful, and they were not monsters, and at that moment they reminded me that I wasn’t alone. Lighting up the world around me, they were showing me there was no monster in the shadows.   
Smiling, I unfolded my body and started moving toward them.   
Without music, they were somehow dancing. Following currents and pressures that I couldn’t perceive. Half closing my eyes, I opened my mind to try to capture the strange sort of music they were following, to join them in their dance. It took me time, but eventually I noticed that my movements were following their own, following a tempo I wasn’t aware of.   
I laughed and swirled and turned. I could have swear I heard their own laugh in response, and to my deathbed I’ll still be convinced I had.   
Yeah… It was a nice memory.   
When I left the abysses that day, I left behind the brainless glowsticks plastic bags and reached back the surface for a deep breath.   
My fear didn’t left completely that day. I think it is still here, a little, deep inside my heart.   
But it did help. So when I feel afraid again, I remember that day and remind myself that if there is something in the darkness, it may just be little transparent angels ready to play.


	5. Coraline's fears

“You’re here,” I say with a smile.  
“I was waiting for you,” she answered, shying away from looking me in the eyes. “I knew you’d come sooner or later. You’re predictable, you know ? You couldn’t ignore the Call for long.”  
I sigh and sit on the edge, letting my legs slide in the water next to her, and watched them start to turn into a tail by instinct.  
“I like being here,” I say quietly. “It calms me, remind me that I am part of a bigger thing that I can’t control and that controls me instead. It helps when I’m overwhelmed too. You probably don’t remember from when you were still human, but life on the surface is a mess, and the problems and fights and chaos, it never really stops. It’s just… simpler there.”  
She didn’t answer, simply let her head rest on her crossed arms next to me.  
“You wanted to ask something in particular, or just felt lonely ?” I ask after a moment.   
She turned her head away from me again, like she was embarrassed.  
“My hair,” she said finally. “They’re too long. They… They were trailing after me lately, and I almost got caught by an orca because of it. It was a close call. And I… I don’t know how to cut it myself, I don’t have scissors, they would rust.”  
Surprised, I laughed.   
“Oh I see. That is… not what I expected. But sure. I suppose you’re now older enough to want a change of hairstyle. How teenager of you !”  
She looked at me angrily, and I stopped laughing not to piss her off more.  
“Fine,” I say with another sigh. “Do you just want it shorter, or another color ? A light green would suit you, I think. Don’t get me wrong, the royal blue looks nice, but light green too, with like a shade of turquoise ?”  
I smiled brightly, trying to sell my idea the best I could.  
She just shrugged.   
“Whatever, I don’t actually care, I don’t really see them. Only you do and… see it. Octopuses are a lot less interested in my appearance.”  
That made me laugh again.  
“I suppose you’re right. Come here,” I said, gesturing her to lay her head on my lap.  
I started by cutting off most of the length, only leaving it to reach the bottom of her shoulder blades. Then I started combing it lightly, humming a lullaby and letting her relax in the momentary break in her solitude. As I was doing so, I lightened the color, passing all sorts of blue and green until I was happy about it.   
Then I reached for her ‘collection’. I let out a mocking sound.  
“I always knew your compulsion to collect shiny things would come handy one day,” I laughed.  
She slapped my thigh lightly, not appreciating the mockery.  
I ignored it, and started picking the shells and trinkets and morphing them into pins.  
One by one, I secured her locks close to her skull, interlacing braids and pins in the best arrangement I could. But I kept in mind that the goal was to make it solid and durable. Her hair were driving her crazy enough to come ask for help, and she was too fiercely independent to do it without a very good reason. So I’d make it practical.   
The last shell in, I tapped her shoulder lightly, inviting her to get her head up and try it.  
She did, shaking her head violently like a wet dog shrugging off the water.   
It held. Of course. I know what I’m doing, and it made her smile in triumph.   
“Thanks !” she said excitedly.   
She made to dive back but stopped to ask :  
“You’re coming ? We miss you down there…”  
I mirrored her smile and let the temptation take me. Taking my last breath of air, I closed my eyes and jumped to join her.

She smiled wickedly. “Race you ?”  
I laughed, shaking my head.  
“You know I’m more powerful than you, don’t you ? How do you expect to beat me ?”  
She lifted her chin hauntingly.  
“Your tail may be stronger, but I spent way more time in those waters than you. Muscle is not everything, you jock ! You’re a newbie here, and no, I don’t care that you’re older than me.”  
I grinned playfully.   
“Kid you’re gonna regret your cheek, when I’ll have kicked your scaly butt !”  
She didn’t even play it fair and launched with another laugh.  
I followed a second later, giving it my best abilities but not trying to cheat it out. Where was the fun in playing only to win ? Even as, of course, I’d still win. Even with just my body, I was more powerful.  
But apparently it was not enough. I was more muscular, but she knew how to use the currents better, letting them propel her ahead of me several times with little efforts. How could she read them so easily ? I barely noticed them, a blurr in the edge of my vision at best.   
That was cheating !  
Unless it was not, and I had to admit she at least made the competition interesting.  
She turned around the rocks to use the invisible forces that would make her faster, turning suddenly to force me to go back on my path. She was good.  
She was going to win.   
And I definitely couldn’t accept that, so I went faster.   
It took me a while to realize I was alone in the race, that she wasn’t following anymore. I just thought I was finally faster.   
By the time I found her again, she was an eternity away, frozen on the spot.  
I followed her eyes, curious at what stopped her.  
They were fixed on the barely awake volcano at the bottom of the fault.   
The water had been getting warmer, but I hadn’t noticed until then.  
She was afraid of the fire, of the volcano. When you lived surrounded by fragile life and trying to preserve it, seeing something that could be so destructive was probably hard.  
I swam slowly toward her still form, and looked into her wide eyes. It seemed like her mind was far away, where I couldn’t reach it. Fear could do that.  
So I went closer to the mouth of the volcano, where I didn’t fear going, hearing distantly her cries of warning. Carefully, I collected a handful of lava and shaped it into my hands, a thousand petals for a rose that, under the pressure of my core, crystalized clear as water.  
I came back to her, and she was back to seeing me, terrified for me more than for herself for a moment. I handled the flower to her.  
“Fears are good things,” I said quietly, not meeting her eyes. “They protect us. Fearing the heights help us not to fall. Fearing the fire help us not to get burnt.”  
She took the flower, and I finally looked into her eyes.  
“Thank you for protecting me when I faced my own fears,” I whispered finally.  
She nodded, and after a long moment, she smiled.  
She twirled the rose between her fingers.   
“Shiny things…” she said with a smile. “Think this is an obsession that could pass one day ?”  
I smiled back.   
“I hope not, what would I gift you with if you don’t like them ?”  
I took the flower back gently and pinned her at the back of her hair, secured in a nest of green locks.   
I turned back to look her straight in the eyes, glad to see the fear washed away. I grinned playfully.  
“Race you back to the cave ?”


	6. Legend

The deep waters had been cold. I’m not usually one to care about the temperature, but the general experience screamed cold, and dark, and lonely.  
I wanted sun, and warmth, and comfort. So I made my way to the warm seas, their volcanic islands and tropical creatures and… their sun.  
I swam right to the surface.  
And yeah. That’s how I stumbled about this specific boat I told you about.  
It was going fast, facing the bright sun, it looked really glorious. I remember liking it. All in hard wood, light and agile, it was really beautiful.  
Playfully, I went to the tip of it and started a course with it, flirting with the risk of being hit by the wood.  
It went faster, I went faster.  
When it slowed, I used the extra time to dive deeper before jumping high, twirling in the air and totally, completely showing off.  
As I dive back, I caught sight of the only one watching : a little kid sat on the front of the boat, with a ‘wow’ on its face.  
I started swimming closer to them, waving from the water, and smiled as they waved back.  
I jumped a few other times, hearing their delighted laugh drawn in the sound of the boat splitting the waters.  
When I saw them up closer and closer to the edge to try to see me, I mimed them to jump, that I would catch them.  
Of course at that point I COULD have abused that power and kidnapped or drowned that kid.  
But I was in a good mood, I suppose.  
Nodding excitedly, they didn’t even take a second to think this through and jumped as high as they could, and I had to be quick to catch them up before they took the boat in the teeth.  
We hit the water soon enough, but not going very deep before I emerged us again for air. They were laughing, eyes closed, and it felt like I was part of someone’s best day of their life.  
I laughed too and swam a little while with them on my back and above the surface, letting the boat distance us. I launched them in the air, jumping to catch them a few times, then dived a under the surface a few more, and they laughed more. We played in the not-risking-to-be-hit-by-the-boat-safe waters a little while before sprinting to catch the other humans again.  
Then I took them under the arms, and threw them hard enough to reach the deck, glad to see them roll unscathed. And still laughing.  
“Mama !” they screamed as they got up and ran further on the deck. “I saw a mermaid !”  
I heard the phantom of a laugh, but not the answer.  
Probably disbelieving.  
I dived back, enjoying the feeling of water after the brazing sun on too sensitive scales.  
I kept up with the course for a while, waiting for the child to come back.  
I haven’t had a real taste of speed for a while, it did felt nice. I felt… more alive.  
Maybe it was what I was pursuing by coming here.  
The kid came back to the edge, and almost fell off the edge.  
Nice parenting there…  
I jumped out of the water to catch them but they fell back on their ass before that. And laughed.  
Do kids always laugh that much ?  
I smiled at them and waved a little goodbye.  
They waved back, and turned away. Maybe calling for their mother.  
I was already diving back under water, too deep for humans to follow.  
I hoped it was one of those times I started a new legend.


	7. La Terre Ferme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by a french song by Luke.

Life is different under the surface.  
Time passes differently. Days blur into nights, how could we know which it is ? There is no sun, and no warmth.  
In the way there is no life either, only the ghosts of it, sparse in a big emptiness.   
It’s easy.   
Like surviving.   
There is no need to fight, or bother with problems. Nothing to face, nothing that keeps us awake, nothing to fear.  
But there is little to love too.   
Surviving isn’t living.   
It happens, sometimes, that our human half yearns for warmth.   
That we want to go back to the surface, to the land, to life. To the flowers and the sun and the dry air on our skin. Far from the silence and the emptiness.   
It’s… human.  
I hated it. Life as a human was always so complicated and exhausting. I hated my body and mind to want to go back to it. To reach out to the sun shining through the shallow waters, to think of flowers when seeing coral, to want to hear music and love confessions. To burn in the fires of life again. Safe from the nothingness, the numb feeling of the ocean. From the blurring limits of heaven and hell.   
But I was human enough to not care and want it anyway.   
I did, several times, went back on the shore, to walk on the burning sand, and reached for the humans and life, its hate and love, that passion I was missing so much.  
I was dead and then I was breathing again.  
I closed my eyes, and felt the scorching air hitting my eyelids, the bite of the stone under my feet.   
And I felt alive again.  
I had been blind to leave it behind me, blind to forget how that life needed me, and how I needed it. I wanted to repent, and give it all I was once again. I made the mistake of forgetting what life was about, what the world above the surface was all about. And I left it, exalted, to the numbness of the ocean.  
I was blind, because the city was so beautiful from afar. I was mocking it, and now I wanted to worship it.  
Clear waters had made me forget the beauty of chaos and of those unwashed dreams. The trash of humanity, the dirty clouds in the sky.  
How could have I forgot all that I learned there ? All that has been so important at the time…  
And those ugly truths I wanted to tear my eyes out to unsee.   
The flaws of humans, the monsters in them.   
So beautiful. How could I have left it all behind ?  
But then I remembered that even as I had the speech, I had nothing to say.  
That even as I remembered the city, I knew what was waiting for me there, and the limits of it.  
There was no word to soothe my pain. There were nothing humans could tell that would heal my broken heart, and those wounds deep inside.   
Soon enough, my feet on the ground were not worth it. Life wasn’t worth it. And I remembered.  
I turned around to watch the sea, and saw peace and quiet. A soothing balm to forget my broken heart. And I wanted to dive back, with those metal-like scales to protect the fragile pieces inside.   
I saw the smug sun going back under the horizon, thinking it did good for today and ready to make the same mistakes again, its fire above an humanity that never learned. And I realized I didn’t wanted to be a part of it.  
It wanted me to touch it, to ride the wind and get burnt, all for that sensation that goes with flying. It wasn’t worth it.  
So each and every time, I stepped back slowly to crawl back into the water.  
Ready to tear my eyes out for there was nothing ugly there to see.  
There were no heaven nor hell there.


	8. Giants' fight

Terrified. I was terrified.  
There had been this fight, and it was normal, natural. There was to be a victor, and a loser, someone that eat, and someone that was eaten.  
That was totally natural but usually I wasn’t there to see it.  
And that made it so much easier.   
But this time I was there and I saw it and I was terrified.   
I had learned pretty early in my life not to fear sharks because they don’t usually eat human flesh, unless they were big whites and pushed into extremes to survive. So sharks, in theory, weren’t a threat to me. Unless I happened to be in their path when they were about to attack their prey.  
This… specific shark was not a big white like I saw on a tv screen, or one of those with the hammer-shaped head. Or with a jaw like a saw. Or even a small one I would play with in the shallow warm waters.   
It was big and it looked bad, like the wolves in the fairy tales, and it terrified me.   
I remembered all those documentaries about the giant animals of the ancient times. A thousand times bigger than the biggest dinosaur, and far more deadly. Megalodon, and all of those lovely names.   
But we were no longer in the ancient times, weren’t we ? Was it true that all this time, we thought they went extinct, when they only lived too deep for us to encounter them ?   
Fools, humans were fools and I wanted to escape this place and never come back, going back to the land and its illusion of safety.  
They attacked yet another shark, and yeah it’s the law of nature, I suppose, but it was a fight of giants and I was a little fish. It was a frightening sight. Before I could swam far enough, as fast as I could, every fraction of second was filled with the fear of being a casualty in their monstrous battle. I wouldn’t have made it alive.  
Of course I would have made it, my mind whispered. I was more powerful than the biggest animal on this planet.   
But the problem was that so far I really thought the biggest animal on this planet was a blue whale and just got proved wrong…  
I wouldn’t have died, I’m invincible in theory. But in the reality, I felt really small, and powerless in the crush of flesh and the flood of blood.   
I swam as fast as I could. As far as I could, blinded by my fear and fleeing instinct. I hurt something, at some point, and quickly moved around it, and curled up in that little space, making me small enough not to be noticed, hoping the stone would hide me from the giants.   
It was stupid. They probably never noticed me in the first place.  
I was really stupid and foolish when I was scared.   
Very helpfully, my mind conjured images of spiders in the corner of my hiding place, and I shook harder. Logic was escaping me, panic filling my body, and I didn’t know how to escape it.   
Phantom sensations of tiny eight-legged creatures crawling over my skin kept me awake, but the rest of the world failed to ground me. I was losing myself. I kept seeing the sharks fighting, the crashing of their bodies, the teeth tearing flesh and spilling blood.  
Behind me, I felt a nuzzle softly nudging my shoulder.   
Grounding me, a great orca slid their slippery skin against mine, inviting.   
I forced myself to breath again, my eyes deep into their, and unknotted my body, letting the water hold my weight and make everything easier.   
She was here to save me. Bringing me to a safe place where there was no sharks and no unknown monsters in the darkness.  
“Take me home,” I whispered.


	9. La Dame

A nice sense of familiarity pooled in my chest, when I saw the orca swim slowly toward us. Hello old friend. I missed you.   
Before confusion took the lead. You are not supposed to be there.  
“What are you doing here ?” I asked, astonished. “Did anything happen ?”  
That was not good. She was never seeking me out if I didn’t need her, it… she was never the one to need me. This was not normal. Something bad must have had happened. I felt confused, and somehow my body was slower, my mind trapped in cotton.  
“Why… Why are you here ?”  
“What the fuck are you talking about ?” screamed a panicked voice next to me. Coraline. “Quick, it’s about to attack us, we need to leave.”  
I shook my head weakly.  
“No. No, they wouldn’t. They promised me they wouldn’t, that they would never hurt me.”  
She tugged at my arm insistently, but I nudged it away.  
No. Why weren’t they answering to me ? What happened ?  
“Oh hell no,” groaned Co beside me. “I am not going to die right there and then because you thought you befriended an orca.”  
She pulled my arm, hard, almost ripping it off my body, and it shook me out of my haze. We swam away as quickly as possible. The orca, swifter than I thought it could be, was following close, and sometimes almost close enough to bite our fins off.   
But Co knew the field, and lost the orca off at some point, even as I was still swimming blindly behind her.  
After checking again that we were safe, Coraline faced me and shook me by the shoulders.  
She probably saw that I was still a little shocked, and slapped me out of it.  
“What is fucking wrong with you ?” she screamed into my face. “Are you finally going nuts ?”  
A part of me took the time to feel insulted at the ‘finally’ but things barely registered.  
Why did they attack us ? They promised me they wouldn’t hurt me, wouldn’t kill me. Were they after Coraline ? That didn’t make any sense.  
“Because I’m not going to let us die because you turned crazy,” continued Coraline. “You may be indestructible but I’m not ! And I survived this long by running away from things too big with too much teeth !”  
I shook my head, trying to clear my mind.  
“I don’t understand why they attacked us. They promised. They wouldn’t break that promise. And… why could you see them ?”  
Her eyes widened in concern and anger.  
“Ok so you really are going nuts right now. This was an orca. A flesh eating monster. An animal. It’s not a ‘they’ and it doesn’t make promises ! So there is only one thing to do, it’s run away, can we agree on that ?”  
I closed my eyes and took a step back on reality. And laughed.  
“You’re right,” I said finally. “Of course you’re right. I… I should go.”  
I looked back at her. Now there was only concern on her face. She grabbed my arm when I turned to leave.  
“Wait,” she said softly. “Can you… could you please me what that was about ? I am… worried.”  
I gave her a weak smile. “Don’t be, I’ll be fine.”  
“But you won’t always be. And when that happens, what could I do about it ? Nothing. I couldn’t… do anything. You’re my only friend. I don’t want to lose you to an orca for a reason that I don’t even understand ! You didn’t even gave me a name to help you snap out of it. Please…”  
I shook my head, denying her my hurt expression.  
“That’s what I am, for you ? A name ? You would forget it anyway,” I said sharply. “You... you know the important, what I want you to know.”  
I pulled my arm back sharply, and left.  
“Come as a whale, next time, alright ? Got my fill of orcas,” I said to the shadow back at my side.


	10. Soothing

Pain.  
It filled me all at once, and instantly I wasn’t able to do anything but scream in the empty. And suffer, suffer so much I wished to die, again.  
Memories of thousands of different lives flooded my head, leaving me nowhere to escape.  
Distantly, I heard a voice calling for me, asking me what was wrong, what could she do.  
There was nothing to be done, I knew that at least, so I didn’t bother trying to tell her.  
Pain was the only reality after that. One I couldn’t get accustomed to, that forced me to experience her every instant and every facet, until she decided she was satisfied.  
I had learned not to fight. Not that fight made it last longer, but it burned down my energy and hope faster, for no result.  
It would stop, there was nothing else to do that wait for it to pass, once again, until the next time.  
There was always a next time. That, too, I had learned.  
It took me hours to emerge again, maybe it was even days. Chasing the memories of the lives that never were, only keeping the timeline that was. It was an exhausting process, and it always felt wrong in the end, like I forgot something important, something I shouldn’t have dismissed. This was a very upsetting feeling and I hated it. I couldn’t be wrong. I just couldn’t afford it.  
Someone was stroking my hair, in a surprisingly dry air, not really where I remember being.  
“Hey, you’re coming back,” she said softly.  
There was a worried expression on her face when I opened my eyes. I looked around me. A cave. Why was I in a cave when I still had my scales ?  
“What am I doing here ?” I asked in a pained voice.  
She blushed. It was a strange look on her deadly pale skin.  
“You… you were unconscious, and I didn’t know what to do, you were falling, drifting. I thought maybe you would need air.”  
It tugged on the corner of my lips.  
“That’s very thoughtful, Co, thank you. But I don’t need air.”  
Her hand was still tangled in my hair, stroking slowly. It felt nice.  
“Are you going to be alright, now ?” she asked quietly.  
I closed my eyes, and considered it.  
The worse was behind me, the recovery would be slow, but I was autonomous once again. I nodded. I opened my eyes again a moment after, watching her eyes lost on the movements of her hand in my locks.  
“Do you want to tell me about it ?” she asked finally.  
My body contracted once in a sharp pain, and I turned my face away from hers. “No.”  
She hummed, not insisting, probably not surprised.  
I let the soft melody of her voice lull me into a semi sleep, letting the calm dilute the pain away.  
“Why did you call me that, Coraline ? I know this was not my original name.”  
I frowned and looked at her.  
“I already told you,” I said in confusion. “You don’t remember.”  
Her lips pressed together. Maybe her memory loss was a touchy subject now.  
“No. Tell me ?”  
I nodded.  
“It’s just a small thing. When I was little, I received a fairy tales book from the little mouse, and even as I thought it was a very strong mouse, I barely questioned it. There were a number of tales there that I never learned before. And there was a version of The Little Mermaid. She was named Coraline, there. So it felt natural to call the first mermaid I ever met this.”  
She pouted.  
“That’s all ? That is not a very magical story…”  
I made a face.  
“I’m sorry,” I just said.  
She kept silent, she didn’t seem really mat at me, though.  
“Do you want me to come up with a story more interesting for the next time you forget ?” I asked.


	11. The Freedom of Falling

Flying. I had been flying.   
And then, I was falling… I remember, now.  
Was it how I ended up down there ? Did I fall all the way from the sky ?  
I remember more and more. Memories breaking the walls of my mind, pain filling my head, burning through all me, I must have faltered, lost the control of my flight. It was probably just that…  
How long have I’ve been there ?  
The sun is not so far, I can see it through the water, it’s probably not deep. I could have ended up in an abyss, and I was there, surrounded by light and life. I probably could have been less lucky.   
But… not remembering my fall didn’t sit well with me. Was it the whole story ? Did I fell, lost consciousness, transformed by instinct and ended up on my back on the coral ?  
It had grown around me, encasing me like a coffin, making me part of that world. It would have felt nice, comforting, if it didn’t feel like a prison.  
A lovely prison. No gold bars, but lively colors and creatures, accepting me, considering me part of their home.   
I have to go, I want to whisper. My heart breaks a little, thinking of the hole I would leave behind me. The coral collapsing without my form supporting it. The animals terrified from the destruction of what they’ve always known. Some there were born and died while I was asleep. The generations that saw me disturb their normalcy left behind the generations that knew me as their normalcy.   
Leaving would be cruel.   
So I lay there, just for a little while. I let them swim around me, their slippery skin tingling mine, their little mouths eating my skin. I don’t really mind.   
I lay there, for days, for weeks. I don’t think I’m ready for reality again. It’s easy to just exist there, be part of the world without it having any expectations for me. It’s a little boring, maybe, but the salted water always soothed my pain.   
Leaving there would be taking the risk to fall again. It is too soon for that, the last was years ago, maybe, but it is still too fresh for me. I need time to heal, to come back to who I am. I can’t fall any deeper, so it’ll be okay. I’ll just take a little time.   
It is nice to know that, if no one ate me while I was asleep for so long, probably no one will do so as long as I stay here. Little fishes excluded. They are just tingling me. Their mouths are too small to cause me any harm. And the bigger creatures are either ignoring me plainly, or playfully dancing in front of me, letting me petting them, and swimming away when they got scared.   
I am a little big for the life forms here. Too big to be a friend, I could only be part of the environment. An unmoving stone at the bottom of their sea, to build their life on top of.   
I am fine with that. They don’t even expect me to breathe.   
Night has fallen, now, and I close my eyes to try to remember what the moon looks like. Is there clouds obscuring it, above us ?  
Some things are tangled in my hair, probably housing thousands of lives. If I pulled away I would destroy them all. I’m not ready to be that destructor again. This is something that belongs to the version of myself who lives in the dry air. Not me. The me living under the sea never destroys, never harms, only try to heal. I prefer this me, most of the time.  
If I go back to the surface it’s just that I get… bored.


	12. Penguins

I rarely went to the cold ices. I didn’t know why, really.   
Old habits die hard I presume. My past self couldn’t handle the cold, but it wasn’t bothering me anymore.   
If I was ready to face the abyss, I could go play with baby lion seals, and that was the end of the debate.  
Global warming had done damage, it was getting ugly, really ugly. Soon enough I was missing the white expanses of ice there were millenias ago, housing life and joy.   
Now it was the home of greed and famine. The horsemen of the apocalypse were waiting for their time there, camouflaged in the white snow. And they would come out soon to reap them all.   
And for the time they were feeding off that wildlife, and there were little lion seals to play with me. The polar bears were busy dying of hunger somewhere else.   
So I accepted my defeat, and moved away from the north, taking refuge in the dark ocean of the south, and its gigantic whales fighting hard to stay alive.   
The ice was melting there too. A little differently, even as I couldn’t explain how. It just… tasted different. The wildlife was too. All I could find was those dumb awkwardly walking penguins. Gold loves penguins, never really understood why. But they had the remarkable quality to be almost completely harmless.   
I swam closer to the ice, and watched a group of them prance around with their little wings around their weird little forms. They were cute. I couldn’t completely deny that.  
The ice was melting, the world was falling apart. But in a closer scene, their ice was falling apart, and those penguins didn’t seem smart enough to have noticed that some of them were walking on a piece that was going to detach itself from the continent rather soon.   
They didn’t even notice, and let out surprised cries when their paths were brutally cut off by the deep ocean.  
Sighing, I swam toward them.   
It really wasn’t my job, but since I was there…  
About six of them were on the little piece of ice drifting away from the shore, and in the middle of their panicked cries I pushed their boat back to its original place, and hold it there for a moment.  
Well at that point any intelligent species would have taken that opportunity to go back to the stable land. Apparently penguins didn’t qualify for ‘intelligent species award’ and mostly stayed where they were, running in circles and screaming at each other what sounded suspiciously like swearing.   
I rolled my eyes and shouted once, very loudly to scare them away from me and, hopefully, toward the shore and their owns. In defense of the penguins, it did mostly work.   
There was only one, a rather young one, that stayed behind when everyone else was safe. It walked right toward me, it didn’t seem to really get the concept.   
Out of balance with only its weight on the edge, the plank of ice started diving on our side, and I tried to shoo him away. I even moved to another side of the piece of ice, and it followed me.   
As a last call, I moved at the limit between the two pieces of ice, coercing it to go back on the land. But land wasn’t what it wanted. It wanted me. And it made it rather clear.   
“No, not closer, it’s slippery there !” I said quickly knowing it couldn’t understand, seeing it going everywhere it shouldn’t go. “You gonna fall you dumbass. And you know you can’t get back up when you fall !”  
I sighed loudly, it was just hopeless a situation. Looking rather smug and happy about itself, the penguin fell right into my arms, in an attempted hug maybe.  
“Yeah, I know,” I grumbled. “I love you too dumbass.”  
I held it tight a few seconds then took the matter in my hands and bodily moved it to the correct ice edge, forcing it to stay there while I pushed the ice plank away with my tail.  
“Now go back home,” I whispered.  
And watched it, happily prancing back to its family, and them walking away slowly straight south.


	13. Her cry

I stopped dead in my tracks. I had heard it, her cry. The last time I heard it, was just before meeting her. Stubborn as she was, it must have been bad.  
I waited a moment, and here it was again, resonating in the water like a whale’s song.  
She was in danger, and couldn’t get out of it alone.  
I located it as best as I could, and transported myself there in an instant.  
It was at the surface, she wasn’t… meant to be on the surface. I looked around myself to find her, and saw an ugly rusty boat instead. She was probably on it.  
I went there and climbed on the deck, watching all the sailors surrounding a small nest bundle. Oh, I thought, I see. Guys who thought themselves lucky or smart for having fished out a mermaid. Well let’s see how smart you feel after I kick your ass.  
“Coraline ?” I called calmly. “You’re here ? Can you hear me ?”  
That of course gathered the attention of all the men. Sadly, though, no answer from my favorite mermaid. Damn it.  
The men looked at me like at a piece of meat. One they could sell for a lot of money.  
I smiled back. That kind of look was never comfortable, whether it was about your boobs or your pale green skin. For every catcalled person on that hellish planet, I was glad I had the power to make them regret it. I jumped on board, and began transforming my body for a more… gruesome version of it. A version with several legs, too. Would come handy in a fight.  
I am not sure how to describe how their expression changed after that. They were still interested in the money, but they were starting to wonder if they were strong enough to win it. They were not.  
One by one, I teared limbs away, relishing in the screams filling the air, and the blood soaking in my skin. After two arms and a leg, the others realized they were about to be killed brutally by someone who just didn’t like them, and that their best bet was ‘let the other dies and try to run and hide’. Little did they know, I don’t give up on anyone. Ever.  
I was angry, at first. I never liked people like them. The world was ugly wherever they were. But when I caught sight of the bloodied and maimed form of Coraline, I lost it.  
They were right to call us beasts, because at that moment, I was.  
Now it wasn’t just about ripping off limbs. I went in with acid like poison and teeth and claws. I went in with pain and terror and torture.  
Who knew what they made the mermaid go through for her to scream that way…  
I made that body, captain. You don’t get to destroy it.  
They had a foul taste, what a waste. I knew for a fact that Coraline’s blood tasted way better, and I was even more mad thinking they wasted it on top of those dead fishes.  
I had to track the last ones in the lower decks, they were trying to fight me off with blades and gasoline and fire, but they die just like the others, and their fire burnt their ship. Stupid little creatures.  
I had more respect for jellyfish.  
When the last drop of blood had painted the walls of the cabin, I went back on the deck to pick up Coraline. She was barely breathing, and with difficulty, and unconscious.  
She had lost a lot of blood, and the gash in her flesh looked dirty and infected and too irregular to look cool.  
I gently took her in my arms and dived in the water, absorbing the impact for her.  
I let the boat drift away, not destroying it for once. I suppose I just liked the idea of it reaching the land with a warning to not mess up with me.  
Then I began doing what I did best : healing my patient.


	14. The women who are pushed from the plank

“I will not see anyone more of them die,” she said. “I know you can give that power to me, so don’t try to deny it.”  
“I can and I choose not to. This is not your decision to make whether those people will live or die. If anything, it’s mine.”  
She looked furious.  
“Do you always think so highly of yourself ? Why can you have this kind of power on reality and I can’t ?”  
I looked straight back at her and crossed my arms.  
“First of all, yes I always think that highly of myself, and it is time you get over it, because it ain’t changing anytime soon, kiddo. You don’t want to hear the ‘listen to your elders’ talk so I won’t give it to you. But if you want answers, ask for them to the ones that gave that power to me and not to you. Apparently they decided I was more to be trusted with them than you. And as you would do something as stupid as turning all the people thrown over the edge of a ship in mermaids, I dare say they were right. You may not like it, but that power is mine, as is the decision to do what you want or not. And I choose not.”  
I sighed, reaching to her still form.   
“If… if it’s because you’re lonely I can come more often, for longer times. But do you realize what you’re asking of me ? You want me to create an entire new specie, with you, time bomb as you are, as the judge of who gets to become one or not.”  
She pushed my hand away, swimming in circles in anger.  
“Do you think I wouldn’t be responsible with it ? I would be, you can trust me !”  
I frowned, and leaned away from her.  
“If I can trust you on some things, I can definitely not on something like that. You’re petty, and bitter, and misandrist. You’re full of prejudices and anger. You are not someone to ‘trust’ and that is the end of it.”  
She snorted.  
“That’s it then. Give me the fatherly ‘and that’s the end of the discussion’ and dismiss the unruly child without even listening to what I am saying ?”  
My jaw clenched.  
“That is what you think ? Then prove me wrong, if it’s a teenage rebellion and I’m the stupid mother-know-best. Tell me something, something you haven’t said before, logical, that would make it less crazy, and that would change my mind.”  
She stayed silent a moment, anger burning in her eyes.  
“They’re dying ! Those… monsters, those humans, they’re throwing them in the ocean with bonded limbs out of prejudices and stupid superstition ! They must pay for what they are doing to them !”  
“I know that,” I said, trying to sound calm. “And I also know that you’re no longer part of the human world and that you cannot go up on those ships and tell them not to do it. All I see is you trying to decide the lives of people you don’t know ! You want them to rebirth from the worse that happened to them, filled with anger and thirsty with revenge to lead the war you can’t win by yourself ! That is incredibly selfish and risky. You don’t know them. You don’t know how they’d react.”  
She was furious. At me for not agreeing with her. Maybe more than with the ones that were the problem in the first place.  
“I never prevented you from doing anything you are already able to do. So sink their ship, kill them all to your heart’s content if you wish. But I will not ‘save’ someone that is already dead.”  
Her lips thinned before she spat.  
“You did it for me.”  
I raised an eyebrow at the taunt.  
“Look where it got me,” I said, aiming to hurt. “I do not like to repeat my mistakes.”


	15. Pet

“And what is… this ?” I ask upon meeting Coraline, a few weeks later.  
She was followed by a happy looking white… dolphin ? Whale. I never know the name of the stuff I meet. I rarely felt relevant.   
“It’s… my friend,” she said hesitantly. “I think. I… helped it get away from being trapped in plastic a few days ago and barely left my side since. Only goes away for a little time and comes back with stuff he found or hunt. That is pretty cute. A little sticky and stalky maybe, but… cute. I think I’ll keep it. Always wanted a pet.”  
I frowned.   
“You’re sure you… you know, have the emotional maturity necessary to have a pet ?” I asked slowly.  
She looked back at me angrily.  
“I’m older than you !” she shouted.  
“You don’t know that, we don’t know that” I said. “I stopped counting and you don’t see the sun enough to count. For all we know, we may even be the same exact age ! That’s unlikely, but… a possibility.”  
She gave me her signature ‘no shit’ look and crossed her arms.  
“I AM older than you and I’m not taking advice from someone who takes as bad life decisions as you.”  
I gave her my best offended look in return.  
“How dare you ?? I take GREAT life decisions, I rock at life decisions making ! It is like my job to help people make good life decisions !”  
She smirked.  
“Right. That is why you spent the last thirty years in here hiding from your husband by fear that he’ll ask you to carry his child again.”  
OK so apparently we were playing dirty… I bit my bottom lip, crossing my arms too.  
“That was a dick move, and you know it.”  
She sticked out her tongue to me, and then turned her back on me to go pet the… thing.  
It made me smile a little.   
“And what does it brings you ?” I ask lightly. “Shiny things like me ? Or corpses from hunting ?”  
She turned and smiled widely at me.  
“Sarcasm ? Really ? It really seems like you’re just jealous of my new friend ! I’m sure you’re missing the times where you were my only friend.”  
This hit home, somehow. Wincing, I said :  
“I’m not jealous. We are different and we… bring to you different things.”  
She snorted.   
“Considering you were the one to ‘curse’ me with an eternity of loneliness, it doesn’t feel like you have any right to be jealous or have any say if I make new friends or get anyone to love.”  
I smiled wickedly.  
“Well, past experiences did prove us that you’re pretty shit at choosing the ones to give your love to.”  
Yep. That was a dick move. But she played dirty first.   
Her eyes threw daggers at me.  
“So this is what we’re doing now ? Only meeting to call each other out and fight ?”  
I laughed.  
“Fight. This is not fighting. Bickering at best. And it’s good to have someone to trust enough to call you on your bullshit and bring you back down to earth. I don’t… like it either, but. I don’t know. Feels more normal. Reminds me I’m not God or something.”   
She hummed and smiled softly. Truce. We left the cave lazily, her pet following right behind us.  
“No, really,” I asked again. “What is it ?”  
She shrugged.   
“You think I spent my human life in an encyclopedia ? I don’t have internet here, how the hell would I know ?”


	16. Bubbles and picnic

I was humming once in a while, but I had zoned out of her babbling a while ago.  
She probably noticed, but decided that it didn’t matter. She needed to talk, not to be listened.  
So it really wasn’t a big deal that I wasn’t giving a fuck to what she was saying.  
Instead, as a grown up with responsibilities, I was hiding in the sea, lazying on the sand, and making air bubbles with my mouth.  
People always thought immortals were all wise men living Diogenes’ style and speaking in rhymes or the wrong way around. Yes I’m looking at you, you green abomination.  
But for real they’re more… eternal children.  
Because the older you get, the less important appearances and being serious get. They’re just not worth it. So you laugh at inside jokes they won’t get until like ten years after.  
And you get sick of people and hide in caves.  
And you make bubbles.  
In the end the society I was born to defined being an adult by not being a child anymore. That was rubbish. The child in you was supposed to stay. To remind you of your dreams, of what you want. Remind you to live in the present and fulfill your emotional needs that the world around you expects you to just ignore when you get old enough. Being a child was very important.  
You don’t want to mess up with a child, because that child never dies in their adult’s mind.  
My child may have been a little… messed up. Wisdom told me to allow myself to experience now what I couldn’t then.  
Adults forget easily that what they couldn’t do as a child because they had no money, because they would have needed adult consent or supervision, they can do now that they’re grown.  
Adults forget to eat that ice cream because you no longer have to answer to anyone about it.  
And bubbles are magical. No matter how old I am. They had always looked magical, and they still did now that I was doing actual magic at a whole other level than air spheres.  
I zoned back in, she had stopped talking.  
I stopped and turned to look at her, afraid I offended her. She didn’t seem to mind much, though. She was only longingly watching the last bubbles raise to the surface.  
Oh. Right. Could she even do it ?  
When the last one popped up, she looked back at me and I laughed.  
“Magical, huh ?”  
She blushed, and nodded.  
“Yeah,” she said softly. “I suppose it’s childish and all but I think I just remembered making soap bubbles as a child, and I kinda miss it. I don’t know… stupid nostalgia or something. I wouldn’t want a soaked up Teddy Bear here, so why want something else that doesn’t belong underwater ?”  
I smiled wider, and took her by the hand. I scanned out a little while but I manage to find an emerging rock. Thanks for shallow waters…  
I made her lay on it and placed myself on my stomach next to her. Then I created one of those plastic bubble bottles with their cheap spiky circle on a stick, and filled it with water and soap.  
With a wink, I gave it to her, and enjoyed the pure joy and enthusiasm it light up in her eyes.  
Her inner child wasn’t dead either. In fact, in her case, it was it who was making most of the decisions. Very little consequences to be adult about…  
She started making them, blowing too hard or too slow, but it took a little time before she got it right. Just like when you do it as a child.  
“I’ve always loved bubbles too,” I said. “Somehow they always felt like the ultimate crystal ball. Its reflexion popping away as soon as you caught a glimpse of it because the future is different if you knew about it.”  
She laughed and blew some little bubbles in my face.  
“Stop being so wise-like. It doesn’t suit you.”

“I want to eat something,” Coraline said suddenly.  
The sun was starting to set, sending golden glitter over the surface of the sea, and daydreams in my head.  
I laid there a long time, just processing.  
“You know, since I made you, all of that time, I never asked myself if you could, needed to or wanted to eat. I’m amazed, truly, that you are still alive, because if you had to rely on me you wouldn’t have lasted a day. And I am mortified.”  
She laughed, a deep sound filling the cold air.  
“Yeah, I figured that pretty quickly to be honest,” she said, looming over me. “It’s fine. I can eat, I don’t really need to. But right now, I want a picnic.”  
A picnic ?  
“A picnic ?” I asked, offended. “Why would anyone in their right mind want a picnic ? They’re uncomfortable, impracticable, messy, hard to prepare, always end up dirty inside and outside… I don’t like picnics.”  
She laughed again, and started poking my shoulder repeatedly with her finger.  
“Please, please, please, sweetheart !” she moaned. “A picnic over the waves !”  
I groaned, and stood my ground. Figuratively. I was still laying like a dead fish over the rock.  
She kept poking, and poking, and poking, laughing harder every time, until I yielded and smiled.  
“Fine,” I whined. “But I’m vegetarian, I won’t serve you meat, so deal with it.”  
I closed my eyes, and created the food slowly. Mostly vegetables, raw or roasted, or cooked in a solid way. Picnics were not a place for ratatouille… I did made her some mayonnaise. Because I’m nice like that.  
She snorted.  
“What, miss wise-ass can create anything but can’t stomach the sight of meat ? You killed, savagely, but meat juice, it’s just too much ? What’s the difference, for real, between a cucumber and a sea cucumber ?”  
I opened her eyes and looked at her angrily.  
“Plants can’t feel pain, that’s my limit. And if you keep being an asshole you won’t have potato chips and we both know that will be the loss of your life.”  
She stopped laughing and looked at me straight in the eyes. She seemed to take a few seconds to consider it, then realized potato chips were definitely worth slowing down on the sass.  
“Yeah,” I said cheekily. “That’s more like it.”  
I closed my eyes again and refocused on the food making. When everything was neat and pretty, I completed the look by making us lay on a vichy cloth. Because you have to be consistent.  
Her eyes widened in surprise, pleasure clear on her face when she saw the display.  
She started biting off berries the second after, and I gently moved the chips bag toward her, watching her eat a little disgusted.  
I never really liked picnics. All that cold food, eating with your hands that you can’t wash either before or after, often no cutlery and often it’s worse when you have it because then you have saucy salads which drip everywhere and stain your jeans and… I didn’t like picnics.  
But Co seemed to like it. That was the most important.  
I leaned back on my rock, focusing my eyes on the sunset rather than on the monster-eating next to me.  
“I don’t know why,” I said distantly. “But I always loved watching sunsets over the ocean. Those are always more beautiful, more magical and colorful, and you don’t miss any of it hidden behind buildings.”  
She didn’t answer, but I heard the crunching of a mouthful of chips. I sighed.  
“Tell me, what’s with the nostalgia wave ?” I asked her, watching her slightly.  
She shrugged.  
“I don’t know, it happens, sometimes. Picnics, bubbles, those are stuff I did when I was a kid, before I knew how shitty life really was, before the accident… Childhood was the good times, I miss it sometimes. Why ? Never experiencing nostalgia ?”  
I thought about it. When I was human, and wanted to feel like a kid again, I slept with one of my dolls. I haven’t touched her since I left. And I rarely looked back since.  
“I can have a picnic whenever I want” I said instead.  
That was true. The only thing was to have someone I wanted to share it with.


	17. They call it science

It had been an accident.  
Accidents happen, no matter how powerful you think you are. No matter how many things you can juggle with within your mind, one day, one moment, there is one too much, and accidents happen.  
The part of me that remembered being human didn’t miss the familiar irony of your body, instinctively trying to protect you, ending up putting you in a greater danger. A danger that reminded me that I was… alive. More than just a mind, I had a body that didn’t always obey me.  
It had been an accident.  
A fight, I was outnumbered but was still gonna rock it. Some water, and my brain in red alert.  
I fell in the water, just a little puddle in an underground parking lot. But I fell on my hip. The one with the scales. And my body, wanting to do good, turned that red alert into a scale alert. The next thing I knew, it was that I couldn’t go back on my feet because I didn’t have any.  
I must have messed up my instincts bad because my tail refused to change back into legs.  
I hated the look I saw on the humans fighting me then. They didn’t go near me, stopped attacking and fighting, mesmerized with what they could do with that new knowledge. How could they use it, exploit me and my scales.  
But my stupid body refused to go back to its earthy state and allow me to go back to my fight. I would have won…  
But like this ? I didn’t. I just didn’t. It’s already hard to lose. To fail. It’s worse when they make you pay for it.  
In a minute, without having even to discuss it, they all agreed that I was now an easy prey, and manhandled me in the back of one of their cliché black cars.  
My body wasn’t responsive. Refused to obey me. I couldn’t use any of my powers, I was just a physical being now, and with only my human arms and a tail as a deadweight, I didn’t stood a chance against them. I was furious.  
But it was me, paying the price of overrunning my body, forcing it past its limits again and again. Fight your nature, it comes back running.  
They bounded my arms, put a black sack over my head, and drove.  
It took hours, and I didn’t stop squirming. Even dry, my body wouldn’t let go of its scales. What do you think, you stupid physicality ? They’re not an armor. They only make you weaker…  
They removed the sack, eventually. Just before throwing me in a ridiculously small tub filled with physiologic liquid. As if I needed water, even less physiological liquid.  
Then, realization struck.  
For science experiments, it is essential to control the medium, make it stable.  
I was their new experiment.  
My arms were still bound, and I tried to shrink on myself, expand, explode, anything, really, that could get me out of that tub. But none of my faculties were even responding.  
I was screaming. I don’t know if I wanted to cry out for help, or trying to scare them off, or just because I couldn’t help it ; but I was screaming and I didn’t stop.  
Not when they immobilized me and started ripping scales out to study them, or when poked at the exposed flesh underneath to see how it was reacting.  
I kept screaming, and squirming, and screaming some more, when they placed all of their machines above me to photograph, and scan my body.  
But when I screamed the worse, was when they planted their giant needle in the middle of my tattoo, drawing out blood.  
Scarring my skin. Forever.


	18. Raising you

“Tell me you always wanted a kid and are so, so glad to finally have your chance to care for a baby. I need to hear it,” I said, since I really didn’t like where my predictions were going.  
The cruel men were dead. Their whaler destroyed and the remains cleaned.  
The scavengers would come for the mother soon.   
But there was still the matter of the newborn blue whale calf. Yes. That was… an issue.  
Coraline looked at me with wide eyes, like she couldn’t believe I just said that.  
“I’m a fish,” she stated. “I’m basically just a fish with arms. There is very little I can actually do. I can’t raise a whale calf. I just can’t.”  
I clenched my teeth.  
“It’ll die if we just leave. It’s a newborn, hadn’t had time to learn anything. If we haven’t been there, he wouldn’t even have taken his first breath. The…” do not say orca “scavengers will come soon enough, and they’ll see the weak baby and just add it to their menu.”  
Coraline shook her head, and crossed her arms on her chest. That little selfish bitch.  
“It needs its mother. It can’t have it. Laws of nature would say he’d die. Now if you want to fight those odds, great for you, but of anyone, it’s you that can pull it off. Not me. Not a fish with arms.”  
I scrunched up my nose.  
“I hate you,” I said.   
She grinned, and raised her chin up.  
“So ? What are you going to do ?” she asked simply.  
“What do you think I’m gonna do, huh ?” I said mockingly. “Whether you imagine it or not, I do have a conscience. I’m not gonna let a baby die. Well if it was a human one I’d find a replacement parent, but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work with whales…”  
She laughed.   
“Yeah probably not !”  
I rubbed my neck.  
“I guess I’ll just have to… suck it up for a few years at least…”  
That prospect wasn’t thrilling me at all.  
She laughed again, and slap my shoulder.  
“Cheer up ! Animals have instincts ingrained in them, it’ll be easy,” she said before leaving me to my boring future. I smiled sarcastically her way, and sighed. Time to raise a baby whale…  
And it was. Surprisingly. Easy, I mean.   
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have the time of my life. Or even fun. But it was not hard.   
Small mercies…  
Of course, the first months were the most demanding. You may not know that, but blue whales are supposed to be milk dispensers for like seven months. And non stop. Like. Fifty liters per day, mostly continuously.   
And even if after a while it nudged me for it naturally, at first I had to force it to accept the milk without looking like an giant mammal. This was… trying. And exhausting. And more than once I considered just leave it to die. The no-sleep didn’t help with that, to be honest. Hard to actually like being sucked 24/7 for months, and even harder to still feel like the thing sucking you is adorable.   
“The krill you stupid fuck !” I screamed from between its teeth. “The shrimp-thing ! You’re supposed to eat that, not me !”  
With effort, I managed to extract myself from its mouth, looking everything like the angry mama I was, if temporarily.  
“You have to stop trying to eat me ! I don’t know if it’s because you are underfed or if it’s a weird sign of affection, but it stops now !”  
It nudged my arm gently, singing slightly.  
“Don’t give me that moaning thing, you tried to eat me again. And yes, I know. We need to find other whales so you can learn to sing properly.”  
I blew out of my nose, trying to calm down. “Come,” I said eventually. “Let’s get you a family.”


	19. The Thief

She had found it. The thief. The one that dared steal from her.  
Some of her things had started to disappear, one by one. She knew, of course, that it was a ridiculous, maybe even unhealthy, obsession. But they were her things and she shouldn’t have to fear thievery so far from the humans. Only humans were rotten at the core.   
Only humans had the maliciousness of robbing others of their possession.   
So she tracked them down. All her trinkets, her gold and silver, her glittery objects, all the way to this place. To it.   
All of her ‘shinies’ were laying there, paving the floor of its den, wasted away from the light of the sun. That creature, it stole them to be wasted here, it stole them for the pleasure of stealing. For the knowledge that it bested her. She could see it in its eyes. The intelligence, the daring and the pride. It knew exactly what it did, and why.  
In return, it was rage and fury that filled her body, that could be read in her eyes. She would made it pay for what it did.  
With a battle scream, she rushed over it, determined to make it hurt.  
But the octopus had too many limbs, they all got on her way to its heart. In the frustration of punching through the water, she cried again, her anger raising even more. With a powerful stroke of her tail, she escaped the suckers hell, and kept away enough of their reach to reconsider her tactic.   
Eyeing the pile of trinkets, she spotted the trident she had found a long time ago, stolen by the octopus, and thrown here like trash. Her eyes saw red once again, resolve falling upon her.   
As fast as she could, she plunged to seize the weapons, fast enough to avoid the numerous tentacles out to get her. Securing her grip on the handle, she threw herself at the octopus again, dodging the black tentacles as they tried to engulf her. Gathering all of her strength, she stroke, hard, toward the head of the animal.  
She drew blood, and pride filled her at the sight, along with a thirst for violence she didn’t remember feeling for a long time.  
But the dents were not buried deep enough, and the octopus slithered off of her reach, flooding the water with pitch black ink in his wake.  
Hissing loudly in frustration, she started hitting all around herself with her trident, trying to at least damage a tentacle in the process, but most of the time hit the empty water instead.   
Following the direction she thought the octopus went, she spiraled on herself, hitting with her tail, striking with her trident. As she got closer to her target, even still blinded, she started to hit her target more and more. After a moment, she could figure a general shape the octopus was in from the way her strokes hit it.   
She knew she drew blood, she tasted it in the deep breath she was taking.   
As the ink faded, diluted by the salt water, it was tinted dark blue with the blood of her adversary. But as the light started to return, it could see her as well, and its own blows stung when they landed on her scales, bruising her skin. It drew blood too, the skin breaking under the suckers and the force of the blows.  
After a vicious blow that made her left arm numbed by the pain, she screamed again and stroke at the head again, letting go of her grip on the handle to give her stroke more strength.  
Her aim was perfect, and the octopus hadn’t be fast enough.   
As she saw the trident plant itself deeply into the octopus’ flesh, she grinned wickedly in triumph, right before a tentacle hit her hard in the head.  
Dizzy, she withdrew from the fight, trying to stay conscious, not to be weak and vulnerable in unconsciousness. But eventually darkness spread over her vision, and took her away.


	20. Tattoo

A lil late for mermay, but I got it !


End file.
